Photoshop CS5 Cropping/Undo Crop

I'm new to CS5. If I crop an image and decide to undo the crop or change it, how do I do this? I'm used to Lightroom, but can't figure out how to change my mind in PS.

Thanks

press control Z

edit>undo crop.

CTRL+Z (undo) ??

Or if it were done a number of steps ago, go to the history panel and click on the action before the Crop.

CTRL Z (Undo) Will work, but I normally use ALT + CTRL + Z to step backwards

I personally would modify the canvas size and resize the layer independently of the image size as to maintain the entire image.

Non-destructive editing is the way to go. But control/command + Z is the undo command. If it doesn't do it, look in the history panel for it.

Try here, here or here.

I'm hoping someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the file history is saved after you save and close a file in Photoshop.

So, if you've already cropped, saved, and closed the file, there's no way to undo that crop once you've closed it in CS5.

I believe Lightroom tags changes onto the file without actually changing it, whereas Photoshop is an actual change to the data file itself. This means changes can be undone, even after a save in Lightroom (I know that's how Adobe Camera Raw handles the files - I believe Lightroom uses the same method).

Ugly Joe wrote in post #11479180
I'm hoping someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the file history is saved after you save and close a file in Photoshop.

So, if you've already cropped, saved, and closed the file, there's no way to undo that crop once you've closed it in CS5.

I believe Lightroom tags changes onto the file without actually changing it, whereas Photoshop is an actual change to the data file itself. This means changes can be undone, even after a save in Lightroom (I know that's how Adobe Camera Raw handles the files - I believe Lightroom uses the same method).

True. You always crop in ACR through Bridge. That's what I do. It works just like LR.

Cmd+Z will only work as long as the crop is still in the history. If you saved and closed the image after cropping, there's no undoing of a crop possible (unless you used the "hide" option)

Yeah, LR uses non-destructive editing, and rather caches changes to be applied to a raw file instead of changing the actual file itself.

Which is why, when editing in photoshop, it is a good practice to be as non-destructive as possible.

Image -> Canvas Size and modify it into the end size you want
Then transform the layer as needed into the new canvas size.

If you really want to be smart about it, create a smart object out of a linked file...

No need to use the "canvas size" workaround.
Tick this when cropping (not available for images that only have a "background" layer):

It is true that LR does a non-destructive crop, but that's only internal to LR anyway. You would have to export it as a JPEG to get it on the web, or to send off to photo lab. Fortunately, yes, you can go back into LR and remove the crop if you want and re-export. The problem I have with using LR to crop, is that there are times I need to make adjustments in PS, and dont want to have to export to PS, and back to LR just for cropping.

For this reason alone, I usually do all my edits, save a copy (usually the .psd so I can make future changes w/o having to do all the prior stuff again, and all the adjustment layers are still there), then crop, make changes to the image size (CTRL+ALT+I, to change resolution if needed), then "Save As" a .jpeg.

This may not be the best approach, but it's how I've been handling this problem for a while now.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I got the picture. It seems that it would make sense to have a "copy" before the cropping like LR within the PS file.

Yup, always keep a copy of the original -- of course, if you're working out of LR it keeps the original and opens a copy in Photoshop. At that point, if you are doing "serious" editing, at some point it can pay off to save a tiff "project file" that includes basic stuff and then Save As stuff for the final output.

I myself prefer cropping in Lightroom/ACR but otherwise would tend to follow what I laid out above.